The Amazing Miss Charles

When asked to comment on the fact that Tina Charles will likely become the all-time scoring and rebounding leader in program history tonight against Notre Dame, the eyes of UConn coach Geno Auriemma grew big and he flashed his charming sarcastic smile.

“No she is not,” Auriemma joked. “I am not going to play her long enough. I get to decide who the leading scorer is in this program. So if she thinks she is going to decide that, she has another thing coming.”

It was Auriemma’s light-hearted attempt to take some of the pressure off his senior center by downplaying the importance of individual records in the midst of the team’s pursuit of a national championship.

Auriemma, however, fully appreciates the progress the 6-foot-4 center has made to put herself in position to break both Nykesha Sales’ scoring record (2,178 points) and Rebecca Lobo’s rebounding record (1,268).

“It is amazing,” Auriemma said. “Really, it is amazing she is going to be able to do that. I just still can’t believe it. After I watched her play our two exhibition games, I thought, ‘This kid is going to score 3,000 points.’ Then as the season went on, ‘Ummmm, I’m not sure.’ Then sophomore year, ‘Definitely not.’”

Auriemma always knew Charles had the talent to be very good. He questioned her desire to be consistently great. He challenged her pride. He used his sarcasm to get her angry enough to prove him wrong. Then he pushed her a little more.

Charles never publicly complained. She didn’t even complain to her mother, because she didn’t want her mother to worry or over react to a situation she knew she could handle herself. Because in her heart, she knew she could get better. She knew that she chose UConn so that she could be pushed to knew limits.

So she confided in teammates who helped her understand how to filter through Auriemma’s criticism. And she grew impressively.

“Tina is amazing,” Kalana Greene said. “I think her first two years this is how we wanted her to play. It’s not necessarily the numbers, but how hard we want her to play. She understands it and she’s holding herself accountable and she wants to do well. We need that on our team. And just to see how she’s grown in the past couple years it feels good to know Tina is finally playing to her potential the last two years and dominating.”

Charles earned not only the admiration of her teammates, but of her coaches, as well. So much so that she elicited an uncharacteristic emotional response. As Charles was announced during pregame Senior Day festivities Saturday, Auriemma fought back tears at center court while associate head coach Chris Dailey cried on the bench.

“It has just been steady, a steady climb,” Auriemma said. “Boom, boom, boom, boom. Phew! I’m shocked, man. Maybe that is why I got choked up a little bit when she came out there (on Senior Day). I was tearing up going, ‘How did she score all these points and get all these rebounds?’”

She accomplished it all because she is an incredibly proud person. She did it because she is great teammate.

Prior to Senior Day when asked what her favorite off-court memory was during her career at UConn, she said it was a pointed conversation Auriemma had with her after the Huskies lost to Stanford, 82-73, during the 2008 Final Four.

He explained to her that the team had the best player in the country in Maya Moore and the best point guard in the country in Renee Montgomery, but that there was no post presence at all to complement them.

While a lesser person might have viewed such harsh criticism as low point,

The words stung badly at the time. But where a lesser person would have allowed such harsh criticism negatively linger, Charles embraced it as motivation. She chose to view it as her favorite offcourt experience at UConn, that moment when her career changed immeasurably for the better.

It was then that she decided she wouldn’t let her teammates down again. She accepted accountability for being great.

She became the Huskies’ post presence, and the team hasn’t lost since, 68 games and counting.

“It is amazing,” Auriemma said. “That is the only word I can use to describe it. It is absolutely amazing what this kid has done. Really, it is just incredible. Really, really, really incredible. And when you think about it, not with a lot of other low post options. It is not like Kara (Wolters) and Rebecca (Lobo). She has had to be there the whole four years. That is what has been incredible about it.”